Too few minority coaches, execs in the NFL? Quarterback Coaching Summit could help

The NFL’s third annual Quarterback Coaching Summit took place virtually last month. It’s conducted annually via a partnership between the league and the Black College Football Hall of Fame.

The goal of the yearly conference is to provide networking opportunities for minority NCAA and NFL coaches and coaching candidates, and NFL executives, in hopes of increasing diversity among those areas of football leadership.

Troy Vincent, the NFL’s vice president of football operations, said this year’s summit confirmed something he already knew: A number of minority coaches currently serving as assistants are qualified and ready to become head coaches.

“The pipeline is there. The pipeline is strong,” Vincent said. “When we talk and speak to the pipeline, we’re talking about the 85, close to 90, participants, that there’s a group that are ready to become, if they had not already been, head coaches.”

Vincent also said a number of participants in the summit should be among the NFL’s next play-callers, quarterbacks coaches and offensive assistants.

Coaches from 22 NFL teams took part in the two-day event, including Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, whose name was mentioned as a potential candidate during numerous head coaching searches last year after. After all, Bieniemy had learned under Kansas City head coach and offensive guru Andy Reid at the helm of one of the league’s best offenses.

In an interview with the NFL Network, Bieniemy said that even though he didn’t land a head-coaching job in this most recent cycle, he learned a lot through the process of interviewing with teams for their respective vacancies.

For instance, he said that one Summit panel that included some NFL owners offered additional perspective into what teams are looking for in their next head coach.

“They already have an idea of what they want,” Bieniemy said. “It’s my job to convince them and sell them on my vision and my philosophy and how I see our organization being run in the future.”

Bieniemy must wait another year for his next shot at leading an NFL team. He said he’s staying patient and is looking forward to coaching with the Chiefs again as they seek to defend their Super Bowl championship.

“I have the opportunity to work with coach Andy Reid, (GM) Brett Veach, Mark Donovan, our president and then our owner Clark Hunt,” Bieniemy said. “So I have nothing to worry about. In order to get a job, you’ve got to make sure you’re doing your job, so I’m blessed and fortunate to be in the situation that I’m in.”

While the NFL is ostensibly attempting to create more opportunities for minorities to become head coaches, the number of minority men who currently hold those jobs remains low. The league amended its so-called Rooney Rule this offseason to require teams with head coaching vacancies to interview at least two coaches of color, and interview at least one coach of color for any coordinator jobs.

From 2009-19, according to Arizona State University’s Global Sports and Education Lab, 14 NFL coaches of color were fired while only 12 were hired. This offseason, Washington hired Ron Rivera after he was fired by the Carolina Panthers.

Including Rivera, only four teams have head coaches of color right now: the L.A. Chargers, Anthony Lynn; Miami Dolphins, Brian Flores; and the Pittsburgh Steelers, Mike Tomlin.

Former Chiefs head coach Herm Edwards said NFL teams need to take the time to ensure that they are looking at a variety of candidates.

Instead, teams oftentimes rush to fill those coveted positions.

“Are you willing to go through a long, tedious process of bringing in three or four guys?” Edwards asked The Star. “Generally, the NFL is not that way. We’re in the hurry to hire, because the quicker you can hire a coach, the better chances he has of hiring assistant coaches.”

Edwards, who is now the head coach at Arizona State, also believes that NFL teams have a tendency to hire coaches on the offensive side of the ball in hopes that their own offense will flourish. Highlighting rising stars among the ranks of NFL assistants at the Quarterback Coaching Summit could help close the gap that exists in the offensive coordinator ranks.

Bieniemy and Tampa Bay’s Byron Leftwich are the NFL’s only Black offensive coordinators at the moment. There are also just two Black quarterbacks coaches in the league right now, and between 2009-19, 91 percent of the offensive coordinator hires have been white.

Edwards maintains that head coaching diversity will start to improve only when there’s more diversity in football’s executive leadership positions — from general managers in pro football to athletic directors in the college ranks.

The NFL only has just two black general managers at present: the Cleveland Browns’ Andrew Berry and the Miami Dolphins’ Chris Grier.

“It has to be looked upon as we say, ‘We live in this competitive world and the playing field should be balanced,’” Edwards said. “And sometimes, that’s just not the case.”